Huawei Ascend W1 passes certification in China

The Huawei Ascend W1 has passed certification in China. Supporting the CDMA 2000 network standard, the Windows Phone is well on the way to hitting stores in the market. We've previously covered news that the device will be present at CES 2013 early next year, which will open up the new year to a range of possibilities for the manufacturer.

The Ascend W1 comes in two colours, and have removable covers (exposing slots, battery, etc.) We're still waiting for the device to be unveiled for other markets, which will be interesting to see the company tackle the likes of HTC and Nokia.

I'm all for low and mid range handsets but this phone looks like it took most of its cues from HTC and a few from Nokia, to each is there own I guess and the more WP handsets that grace the market the better chance the platform has to shine. Some people might be caught up by the look and feel of a phone long before they even slide the lock screen up. I do wish more phone companies would jump in the mix tho and change this from a 3 horse race to a full market rush but as my roommate pointed out he likes the fact that windows phone is the underdog and it makes him so proud when people ask him about his phone because they have never seen a phone quite like the Nokia Lumia 920.

If this phone is priced similar to the Lumia 620, then it would depend on which is more important to you, the battery or the internal storage. The W1 has a bigger battery at 2000mAh vs the 13000mAh of the 620 but only half the storage at 4GB against 8GB of the Lumia 620. I hope Huawei gives this a price range lower than the $249 of the Lumia 620.